


Flour

by ellyerin



Series: Peter Parker Meets the Avengers [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Baking, Birthday, Fluff, Gen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Precious Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25098451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellyerin/pseuds/ellyerin
Summary: Peter is trying to make Tony a cake for his birthday.Rhodey walks into his best friend’s kitchen to find a teenager standing on the counter.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Peter Parker Meets the Avengers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817749
Comments: 38
Kudos: 1392





	Flour

Peter wasn’t exactly skilled in baking. Baking involved a lot of patience and gentleness. But baking also involved a lot of precision and measuring and putting things together, and Peter was good at those things, so he felt like he  _ should  _ be good at baking. Plus, it’s nice to bake for someone on their birthday. And it was 5am, and he couldn’t sleep, and even though Mr. Stark hadn’t said anything about it, he knew tomorrow was Mr. Stark’s birthday, because Mr. Stark was famous and you could Google his birthday. And Peter felt weird that he was gonna be the first one to see Mr. Stark on his birthday, without even having a plan. So at 5am, Peter got up, pulled on one of Mr. Stark’s old sweatshirts that he’d stolen, and started looking up cake recipes. 

A few minutes later, he was in the kitchen laying out ingredients one by one. Eggs, milk, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, vanilla, water - check, check, check. Just looking for the flour. Peter kept opening and closing cabinets in search of flour (there had to be flour here right?) until finally he spotted it on the very top shelf on the right. He climbed on to the counter, and reached his arm up toward the flour. 

Peter normally would’ve heard someone coming. Normally, he would’ve heard the elevator approaching and sensed someone coming. At the least, he should’ve heard the elevator open and footsteps walk in. But it was now about 5:15am and Peter was stressed and overthinking, and he was trying really hard to only focus on this cake project. Standing on the counter, reaching for the top shelf, Peter had just grabbed the flour when a voice rang out. 

“Uh, hello?” 

Peter spun around quickly, dropped the flour, then scrambled to catch it again before it hit the ground. He just barely caught it without falling on his face. And then he noticed War Machine staring at him from across the room. 

“Uh,” Peter’s mind went blank. “Hello.” 

* * *

Rhodey knew Tony had never liked his birthday. Some people find that surprising, especially given his playboy, party past, but Rhodey felt like he got it. Birthdays were always too hyped, and Tony never had a lot of people around him to really show him love. So Rhodey figured it probably always felt disappointing. Plus, now, he’s old. After a certain age, birthdays just remind you of your mortality. Not fun. 

And as far as Rhodey knew, Tony was living alone. No one should wake up on their birthday, alone in a big tower, to sit around thinking about their mortality. That’s why Rhodey had woken up at 4:30am to haul butt over to Stark Tower, so that his long time best-friend didn’t sit alone in his living room sulking. And even then, he was prepared for exactly that sight when he stepped into the penthouse. What he was not prepared for, however, was for a skinny, curly-haired teenager to be standing on Tony’s counter,  _ in Tony’s old MIT sweatshirt _ , reaching for the flour. This time, he’d really been caught off-guard. 

The kid seemed to be caught off-guard too, since he hadn’t gotten down from the counter yet. “What’re you doing there, kid?” Rhodey raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, I was, um,” the kid looked down at the ingredients laid out on the counter, face scrunching up. “I was making a cake.”

“A cake…” Rhodey found himself walking around towards this kid. This kid who was apparently making a cake at 5:15am. “A cake for Tony?”

“Yeah,” The kid sighed and looked down at Rhodey. Then he seemed to remember he was standing on a kitchen counter and jumped down quickly. “Yeah, a cake for Tony.”

“And you’re…?” Rhodey asked. 

“Oh! Peter, Peter Parker,” The kid, Peter, stuck out his hand. 

Rhodey, even though his brain was still a few steps behind, found himself shaking Peter’s hand. “Colonel Rhodes.”

“I know,” Peter squeaked. “How come you’re over here so early?”

Rhodey craned his head to look down the hallway towards Tony’s room. “Sometimes, Tony gets up real early. He’s kind of a bummer about birthdays and stuff like that, and I didn’t want him to get up early and sit around moping alone on his birthday.” Rhodey turned his gaze back towards Peter. “I guess I didn’t have to worry about that though.” 

“Oh, no I guess not.” The kid smiled and shrugged. Rhodey scrunched up his eyebrows, wondering how Tony had somehow failed to mention that a teenager lived with him now. “I guess he does get up early, huh. He is almost always up before me on Saturdays.” 

“Huh,” Rhodey hummed. This kid seemed to be raising more questions than he was offering answers. But he wasn’t about to interrogate some teenager - a teenager who was making a birthday cake for Tony at 5am. No, he could save the interrogation for the birthday boy himself. “So what kind of cake are we making?”

Peter whipped his head around, and Rhodey saw his eyes brighten. “Oh! Chocolate, Colonel Rhodes, sir.” Peter smiled. 

“You can call me Rhodey,” Rhodey put his confusion to the side and started making cake. 

* * *

The two worked mostly in silence, and Peter was glad because he didn’t think his brain was up for a long introductory conversation this early. Colonel Rhodes - or Rhodey - did, however, have to interrupt their conversation from time to time to correct Peter on some step of the process: slower pouring or faster whipping or something of the like. This might’ve irritated Peter under different circumstances (especially in a realm like baking, where he already knew he was no good), but Rhodey was really nice about it. Although Peter had always imagined War Machine as intimidating, the man standing before him was anything but. He seemed humble and definitely not condescending, and Peter appreciated the help. Plus, this guy had come to keep Tony company on his birthday, so Peter was already partial to him. 

About 45 minutes after Peter had begun, the cake was out of the oven, cooled, and ready to be frosted. Peter grabbed one of those big flat frosting knives and started spreading. Rhodey looked on over his shoulder. 

“Hey kid, I think we did pretty good.” Peter could hear the smile in Rhodey’s voice. 

“I’ve never gotten this far in baking something,” Peter chuckled. “Normally, it’s black and rock solid by this point. Hope it tastes alright.”

“Well, I don’t think it can taste that bad,” Peter looked over his shoulder to see Rhodey shrug. “It’s chocolate.”

Peter finished up with the homemade frosting. “Yeah, good point.”

He looked down at their cake, and although it looked delicious, it didn’t scream birthday. Peter remembered something that he’d seen earlier, and in a blink he was climbing back onto the counter. 

“Woah, kid, what’s up?” Rhodey raised an eyebrow at him but walked over to look at the cake now that he was out of the way. “Damn, this looks good.”

Peter grabbed the tube of frosting he’d seen before. “It needs some pizazz.” He jumped off the counter, in a way that he hoped didn’t scream Spider-Man. 

“Pizazz?” Rhodey questioned. 

“Pizazz,” Peter, confirmed, as he pointed the frosting tube at the cake and started scribbling. Now this was the part where precision (and good handwriting) helped him out. With Rhodey again looking over his shoulder, Peter spelled out ‘Happy birthday, Ironman.’

Peter looked up to see Rhodey smiling, fondly. “Perfect.” Rhodey started reaching out for a high-five, when another voice cut in from the hallway. 

“What’s perfect?” Tony rounded the corner, eyes wide at the two of them. Peter tried to whip himself around to face Tony and hide the cake, but his hand flung out from his body and hit the flour on the counter. In a second, the flour had hit the floor and Peter and Rhodey were covered in a cloud of white powder. 

For a minute, the three were silent as little bits of flour continued to rise through the air. Then, Rhodey and Tony started laughing, hard and loud, and Peter did too. For Rhodey and Peter, the laughs turned into coughs as they inhaled flour, and that only made Tony laugh harder. 

“Happy”  _ cough  _ “birthday,”  _ cough _ “Mr.”  _ cough  _ “Stark!”  _ cough.  _

“I’m sorry,” Tony’s face was red from laughing. Peter thought he saw him wipe a tear from his eye. “What was that, kid? You got something in your throat there?”

“Hey!” Peter tried very hard not to cough again. “You can’t laugh at me coughing - I have asthma, you know!”

“You  _ used  _ to have asthma. You’re fine now,” Tony laughed again looking at Peter and Rhodey. “Well, fine, and covered with flour.”

“Hm,” Rhodey started, looking up at Tony with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “You know what? I think this calls for a birthday hug. Come here, buddy.”

Rhodey started walking towards Tony, flour-covered arms open. Peter watched as Tony’s face lost all trace of humor, eyes wide. “Oh, no,” Tony started backing. “Oh, no, get away, demon! Back, back!” Tony turned and ran into the dining area, Rhodey hot on his trail. Peter couldn’t help but start laugh-coughing again. 

“No, no! It’s my birthday! What did I do to deserve this on my birthday?!” Rhodey had backed Tony up into a corner. 

Rhodey smiled, “You’re my best friend, man. Best friends get birthday hugs.” Peter watched as Rhodey wrapped his arms around Tony’s shoulder, and Tony too got covered with flour. 

He faked as if he’d been stabbed and fell into a kitchen chair. “I have been betrayed.”

“Yeah, yeah, quit being such a baby.” Rhodey laughed, grabbing a kitchen towel to wipe his face. Peter thought that sounded like a good idea, and he started to wash his face in the kitchen sink. 

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it, kid. How ‘bout we all take showers and then we can come back and talk about whatever crazy stuff you two were doing in my kitchen at 6am? Rhodey, you can use the normal guest shower.” Tony started walking back towards his bedroom. Peter grabbed the cake and stuck it in the fridge, and he and Rhodey walked to their respective showers. 

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Rhodey walked back into the kitchen. Tony was standing there, using a remote to try and maneuver some kind of vacuum-robot over the spilt flour. “Hey, man,” he squeezed Tony’s shoulder. “Happy birthday.” Tony briefly looked up from his remote and smiled at him. 

Rhodey looked around. “The kid’s not out yet?”

“Oh, no, he’s not a quick showerer.” Rhodey waited to see if Tony would offer up any more info on Peter on his own. He didn’t.

Rhodey sighed. “Okay, so… you wanna tell me when a 15-year-old started living with you? Who the hell is he?”

Tony looked up from his remote, paused for a moment thinking, and then put the remote down altogether and looked up at Rhodey. 

“What did he tell you?” Tony was putting on a calm face, but Rhodey could tell there was something he didn’t want to share. 

“Nothing, why? Is that gonna change your answer?” Rhodey didn’t want to start something with Tony on his birthday, but a teenager seemed like a pretty big thing to hide from your best friend. 

“No, I’m sorry,” Tony rubbed his hands over his face. “He’s an intern. Super smart prodigy type. He doesn’t live here. He just spends Friday nights cause we have lab time on Fridays and his aunt works late, so it just worked out that way. Sorry, I never mentioned.”

Rhodey could tell that wasn’t the full truth. He’d really thought the two were related. He’d hoped that Tony would tell him Peter was some long lost cousin who was spending the weekend. He’d worried Tony might tell him Peter was a secret child that he’d only recently discovered. But Peter had called him “Mr. Stark,” so the intern story held up a bit. Rhodey still wasn’t fully convinced that was all there was to it. His face must’ve conveyed that because Tony raised an eyebrow. 

“Who’d you think he was?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Tony. When I walked in earlier, he was some skinny white teenager wearing your old MIT sweatshirt. It was like going back in time, and looking right at a mini you.”

“Yeah, but, like, cooler and funnier??” Rhodey turned around to see a flour-free Peter smirking from the hallway.

“Hey! One, that’s definitely not true,” Tony crossed his arms and levelled a glare at a Peter. “Two, it’s my birthday, so even if it was true, you can’t say it.”

Peter walked over to Tony’s side and laughed. Rhodey noticed how natural they looked around each other. “Yeah, okay, whatever,  _ old man _ .” 

Rhodey thought it was a little harsh to call him  _ that  _ on his birthday. Tony must have also because he flicked Peter on the forehead. But Rhodey thought he saw him smile a bit. 

“Okay, so,” Tony walked towards the fridge. “What were you doing with the flour and the kitchen? Could it be something for me… on my birthday?” Tony smiled a spoilt smile, and Rhodey rolled his eyes. He looked over at Peter, who was looking up at him. 

Rhodey shrugged. “Breakfast cake?”

“Cake!” Tony cheered.

“Breakfast cake!” Peter agreed. He walked over to the fridge, opened it, and pulled out their creation. He held it out in front of Tony. “Happy birthday, Mr. Stark!”

Tony smiled a real smile. Rhodey remembered how he’d been worried that Tony might sulk his whole birthday, and that seemed silly now. 

“Put it on the counter, kid,” Tony said.    
Peter started to put it down, and Rhodey thought he saw his smile falter a bit. “Do you like it? I wasn’t sure-”

As soon as the cake was out of Peter’s hands, Tony wrapped his arms around Peter. “It’s perfect, kid. Thank you.” 

Rhodey smiled at them. “Very sappy,” he cut in. 

Tony let go of Peter and turned around to wrap his arms around Rhodey again. Rhodey pretended to flinch. Tony laughed. “Yeah, yeah, well you were making that cake too. Plenty of love to go around. Thanks, platypus.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Rhodey laughed as Tony let go of him. “How about we cut into this breakfast cake?” 

* * *

As Rhodey was cutting the cake, Tony pulled Peter aside. “Hey, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to tell Rhodey about being Spider-Man. I just told him you intern here, so it’s totally up to you. You can definitely trust him if you do want to tell him. He’s my oldest friend, and it might be good to have one more person on your side. But I respect your whole secret-identity thing, so it’s all up to you.”

Peter looked over his shoulder at Rhodey who seemed to be intensely focusing on cutting the cake. He thought for a moment, but there wasn’t much to think about. It probably would be good to have another person in his corner, and he’d really enjoyed hanging around Rhodey this morning. Plus, if Tony trusted him, then Peter trusted him. Peter grinned. 

“Hey, Rhodey,” he started. Once he saw Rhodey look up, Peter did a double backflip and landed right beside him. Rhodey made a little shriek. “I’m Spider-Man.”

Rhodey’s jaw dropped open. For a moment, he stood completely still. Then, he pointed at Peter, finger shaking. “You’re…” He looked over to Tony. “He’s…” Tony nodded, smirking. “But you’re…” Rhodey snapped back into focus, but frowned. “Tony! This kid is like 14!”

“15,” Peter cut in. Rhodey sent him an incredulous look that silenced him. 

“Hey, it’s not my fault! Besides, you can’t get mad at me on my birthday!”

“Oh, I certainly can,” Rhodey started, but Peter cut him off.    
“You don’t have to. I was Spider-Man before I met Mr. Stark. He gave me a super suit and a semi-real internship and a support system. So, there’s no reason to get mad at him.” Peter smiled and looked from Rhodey to Tony. “Especially on his birthday.”

Rhodey stood silent for a minute. He only looked half-convinced. “Alright, well,” he sighed. “I’m sure there’s some lecture here for tomorrow. When we don’t have breakfast birthday cake to eat.” He looked over at Peter. “Nice to meet you, Spider-Man.” Instead of offering his hand, he held out a piece of cake. 

Peter grinned and looked over at Tony, who was smiling fondly at the two of them. Peter felt like they’d given him a pretty good birthday present after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> This piece is part of a series of unrelated pieces in which Peter Parker meets the Avengers (or Rhodey or Ant-Man or someone like that). So, if you liked this, check out the first piece in the series, and keep reading! Thank you!


End file.
